Last One Standing Syndrome
by ChandaK562
Summary: When Aileen is the last survivor from a murder trial, can Kay save her from becoming the last victim of the killer who has taken over fifty people out?
1. Chapter 1

"Hey!"  Agent X called as he hurried across the crowed main area of MIB headquarters and over to Agent Jay.  "There's a message for you.  They're waiting on hold down in the kitchen.  Someone named Edie."

"Edie?"  Jay puzzled over the name for a moment before he finally recalled Aileen's large partner.  What does she want?  You sure that she didn't say that she needed to talk to Kay?"

"I think I know the difference between Jay and Kay, and as for what she wants, who am I, your social secretary?  The only reason I came to tell you was that the worms wouldn't leave their coffeepot to take a message."

"Well, thanks for letting me know."  Jay said, leaving X to wander off on search of his partner Elle, as he headed for the kitchen to talk to Edie.  Why in the world was she calling him?  Sure, they had got along well when she had visited with Aileen, and he had covered for her when she wrecked the LTD, but why would she be calling?  Had something happened to Aileen?  Jay paled, and felt his stomach seize up as that thought hit him.  If anything had happened to her, it would kill Kay.

"Edie?  What's going on?"  Jay said as soon as he reached the kitchen, and dodged around a worm on a coffee run to get to the communications hook-up.

"Jay, thank goodness.  I wasn't sure if that Jedangian would let you know that I was trying to get hold of you or not."  Edie sighed as she saw him on her screen.

"Yeah, X is grumpy sometimes.  I thought it was just with humans, though."  Jay said.  "So, what's going on.  Aileen's all right, isn't she?"

"I don't know, Jay.  That's why I called you."  Edie told him.

"What do you mean, you don't know if Aileen's okay?  Edie, if something's happened to her, I don't know if MIB has enough insurance to fix the building after Kay tears it to pieces.  What's going on?  Where is she?"

"At her desk."  Edie said as she peaked out from the closet where she was hiding to make her call for long enough to make sure that her partner hadn't wandered off.  "Yes, she's still there."

"Okay, at her desk is good.  Girl, you scared me there for a minute.  So, what's going on?"

"I think someone's going to kill her, Jay.  Or at least that's what I'm afraid of.  I don't know."  Edie sighed.  "Aileen thinks that I'm imagining things, but I don't know.  That's why I called you to see what you think."

"You think that someone's going to try to kill Aileen?  Worms, get out of here.  Can't a guy have a chat in private?"  Jay waved for the worms to leave and didn't speak until they were out of the way.  "Edie, what is going on?"

"I hope that you'll be able to help me figure it out."  Edie sighed again and slumped back against the wall of the closet.  "Aileen really thinks that I'm imagining things.  I mean, the deaths were ruled accidents or natural causes, and some people might not even be dead yet, but still, I'm really scared, Jay.  If I'm right, Aileen's the only one left."

"The only one left?  Edie, I'm not following you at all here.  Why don't you start at the beginning and tell me what you think is going on?"

"I hope I'm wrong about this.  I really hope that I am.  Jay, you were a cop before you became an MIB, right?"

"Sure.  Edie, could you tell me what's going on?  Because if Aileen's really in some sort of trouble, I should probably led Zed know so that he can double our insurance real fast.  What's going on?"

"When you were a cop, did you ever have anyone threaten you?"  Edie asked.  "Or did you ever testify at a trial where there were threats?"

"Someone threatened Aileen?"

"I don't know.  That's what I need help with."  Edie told him.  "Aileen thinks it's nothing, but I'm just not sure."

"Edie, come on.  What is going on.  Something happened or you wouldn't be this panicked.  Just tell me what it is, okay?  You want my help, right?  I can't do anything unless you pull yourself together and tell me what you need."

"It started a couple of weeks ago.  Aileen got tapped to go to a funeral of some big prosecutor here on Arbus, and of course I had to go with her.  Nothing really happened there, but then just a few days ago, a judge dropped dead and there we were again at another funeral with the same cast of characters.  Then, at the reception afterwards, Aileen was talking to a couple of people, and she mentioned that she hadn't seen the judge or the prosecutor since this big case that she had to testify at about five years ago."

"Okay, but where does the notion of a threat come in?"  Jay asked.  "Were the deaths suspicious or something?"

"The lawyer ate bad food, and they say the judge had a heart attack.  Did you know how many things can cause a heart attack?  Seventy-six, and I just started checking!"

"Worms on that list, because I'm pretty sure they're going to give Zed a heart attack one day."  Jay joked, before getting down to business again.  "Seriously, Edie, what about this is bugging you?"

"One of the people Aileen was talking to mentioned someone else, a baliff at the court that died in a traffic accident.  I don't know.  I thought I was reading too many of those Earth mysteries, but I did some looking, and pulled up the case file that Aileen was talking about.  Jay, they're all dead.  Everyone connected to the case is dead, at least the ones that I could find, and I have a bad feeling about the two jurors that are missing."

"Everyone?  Edie, you have to be kidding.  Someone would have noticed if everyone connected to a case was getting bumped off."

"The case was five years ago, and the deaths have been spread out ever since.  If those two here on Arbus hadn't taken place so close together, I don't think I would have noticed either."  Edie said.  "Jay, what should I do?  Aileen thinks that I'm just imagining things, and she's threatening to take away all of my mystery books.  What if someone's really after her, though?  How am I supposed to keep her safe if she doesn't think she's in any danger?"

"I don't know.  Edie, all of the deaths were ruled accidental?  How could they be ruled accidental for that many people?  How many was it, now?"

"The judge, the jury, the lawyers, that baliff, every witness that I can find, although some of them are missing too.  Jay, a lot of these people were from other planets.  If they had all been here on Arbus, we would have noticed, I'm sure, but spread it out over a couple of systems and..."

"And they could have very well missed something.  Edie, get the files you've found and send everything to me, okay?  I'll take a look, and see if I can figure something out."

"You don't think that I'm wrong, then?  I was hoping that you would say that I was wrong."  Edie said.

"I hope you are, but if what you're saying is right, I don't think so.  Just send me the files, and let me take a look, okay?  Then we can figure out where to go from there."

"Thank you, Jay."  Edie sighed.  "I didn't know what else to do.  Aileen's so sure that things are fine, and she usually has excellent instincts, but...."

"But this time you think something's weird.  I hate it, but I think you could be right."  Jay said.

"So, what do I do while you're looking into things?  I thought about going to the chief of detectives about this, but I'm afraid that he wouldn't listen either."

"What should you do?"  Jay didn't know what to tell her.  Edie was probably right, if Aileen wasn't listening, what were the chances another officer would take her seriously?  "Can you keep an eye on Aileen, make sure she doesn't go off by herself until I can figure out what to do?"

"I could handcuff myself to her.  Would that help?"

"Might be taking it a bit too far.  Just watch her, okay?  I'll go over things as fast as I can, and hopefully we can figure something out."

"Thank you.  I thought about calling Agent Kay, to see if he could make Aileen see reason, but..."

"Edie, Zed likes this building.  I don't think he would like to see what was left of it if Kay got news like that.  Just get me the reports, and let me see what I can do, okay?  Maybe I'll be able to figure out a way to break things to him gently."  Jay told her.  Break things to Kay gently.  Jay sighed again as Edie disconnected with a promise to send the files as fast as signals could fly between the two planets.  If Edie was right, and Jay had a bad feeling that she was, there wasn't a way in the world that he could break it gently to Kay that a killer was after his girlfriend.


	2. Chapter 2

"What's all of this?"   Elle said as she came into the kitchen with X right behind her and found Jay at the table in front of what looked like a literal mountain of papers.  "Don't tell me that U finally convinced Zed that we need to fill out those forms that he's been going on about for the last month."

"If it is, I know places that we could dump U that no one would ever find."  X said as he scowled at the papers.  There was no way that he was going to do a similar pile if it was waiting for him somewhere.

"No, as far as I know, Zed's still vetoing that.  This is some stuff Edie sent me.  I'm not sure what to make of it, though."  Jay said.  The amount of deaths tied back to people involved in a single case was by itself suspicious, but before he went to Zed, he felt like he had to have more than a gut feeling.

"I heard that Edie called you.  Getting a girlfriend, Jay?"  Elle teased.  "You and Kay can double-date.  Won't that be fun?"

"Ha, ha.  That isn't what it's about.  Honestly, it would be better if it was."  Jay replied.  "Edie thinks that someone's out to get Aileen, but she can't get her to listen.  She thought that I could help her out, or convince her she was imagining things."

"By the papers, I'm guessing that you didn't go with her imagining things."  Elle said.  "So, why does Edie think that someone's after Aileen?  I can assume that Kay doesn't know about this yet.  The building's still standing."

"It's long and complicated, and I'm still not finding enough to go to Zed with this."  Jay said.  "Which is bad news big time.  Something's up with all of this, and Aileen's out there not knowing.  But if I can't find something to convince someone, I'm not sure if they're going to listen to me any more than they'll listen to Edie."

"So, what makes her think things are suspicious?"  X asked as he picked up one of the files.  "This one says it was a traffic accident.  Rain, dark night.  That happens all the time."

"It's the number, and all of them go back to that case."  Jay said.  "What are the odds?  And Aileen's the only one left standing at the moment.  Edie's scared to death, and I'm not sure what to do to help her."

"Wait, let me see that one, X."  Elle said as she glanced over her partner's shoulder as he picked up another file.

"Did you find something?  Please tell me that you found something."  Jay said as X passed Elle the file.

"Maybe.  Give me a minute to look over this.  How did Edie get this thing anyway?  This says the death was accidental food poisoning.  That isn't a police matter."

"I don't know how she got it, and frankly, I'm a little afraid that asking would make me an accomplice."  Jay said, frowning as Elle pursed her lips.  "You see something in all of that?  I've been going crazy for the last couple of hours, trying to make heads or tails of it.  It was one of the ones that got Edie's attention."

"Jay, remember what I used to do for a living?"  Elle said.  After a moment, she nodded.  "Do you want me to go with you to talk to Zed?  Edie's right."

"Okay, how do you know for sure?"  Jay asked.  "Not that I'm arguing, because I think Edie's right too, but what are you seeing that I missed?"

"And what are you seeing that a bunch of other aliens missed?"  X demanded as he tried to take the paper back.

"Don't do that."  Elle reached up and bopped X on an ear.  "I'm not saying that your precious fellow aliens don't know how to do their job.  They've probably never seen something like this before.  Jay, if whoever tthis is, is after Aileen, we have a real problem.  They're smart, very, very smart."

"This many people without someone catching on, I already figured out the smart part, Elle.  Now come on, what did you spot?"

"This lawyer, he was taking daily injections for a medical condition.  Elle put the paper down so that they all could see, and tapped a couple of places.  But if he had taken his daily injection, these readings would have been higher than this.  Someone slipped the toxin that was in the food into the medicine bottle.  I had a case like that once when I was in the morgue.  Someone bumped off their uncle by switching out his insulin.  It about drove the police crazy until I went over the bloodwork again."

"And then he poisoned a whole bunch of other people to cover things up?  That's nuts."  Jay whispered.

"It almost worked with the case that I'm thinking about.  The guy that did it even poisoned himself to throw off suspicion.  Jay, Edie's sure that Aileen's the only one left?"

"A couple of jurors are still unaccounted for, but I've got a real bad feeling about them.  They dropped out of sight a couple of years ago."  Jay said.  "Elle, I don't like the way that this is going at all.  I think you better come with me to talk to Zed and let him know about this."

"And give him time to double the insurance before he tells Kay."  Elle nodded.  "I'll be back in a little while, X.  don't go running off without me."

"Wait a minute, Little Ears.  Do you think I'm going to let you get involved in a murder investigation without me?  I'll have you know that I solved hundreds of murders back home!"

"Whatever help we can get, I'm going to take it right now."  Jay said as he stood and started for the door.  "Let's just hope that Zed's in a mode to listen."

"You think what?"  Zed yelled a little while later.  "Please tell me that you're pulling some sort of joke."

"I wish we were, boss."  Jay said,  "But Elle looked at one of the reports, and thinks that she found something.  And look at the number of deaths.  What are the odds of something like that happening?  Are you willing to risk Aileen on the chance that we're wrong?"

"What do you have, Elle?"  Zed asked.

"Enough to say how I think that this prosecutor was killed."  Elle said.  "It would help if I could get more records from Arbus to tell a few more things, but if I were still in the coroner's office, I would have to say this was a homicide, or at least suspicious enough that the police should look into it."

"All right, and no, before you offer, I don't need the details."  Zed said.  What should he do, though?  If the authorities on Arbus had ruled the deaths accidents or natural causes, MIB coming in and yelling murder wouldn't be appreciated.  "Let me make a few calls to a couple of friends and see what I can do.  Junior, you said that Edie's the first one that noticed this?  She's keeping an eye on Aileen, right?"

"I have a feeling that she's so attached to her at the moment that Aileen probably thinks she's got a symbiote stuck to her."  Jay said.  "Boss, what about Kay?"

"Let me handle that after I make those calls.  In the meantime, Junior, go and get packed.  You and Kay are going to be heading to Arbus on the next shuttle."

"Zed, I think that I should go with them."  Elle said.  "I've see a death like this before.  It might help to smooth things over with the authorities if I was there."

"If she gets to go, then I'm going too."  X said.  "You're not sneaking off on me, Little Ears.  Aren't you the one who's arguing all the time about teamwork?"

"Do you really want to spend your time poking in morgues?"  Elle demanded.

"It doesn't matter if he wants to or not.  I'm not sending one of your without the other.  Go, and get packed, all three of you.  You're leaving on the next shuttle out."


	3. Chapter 3

"Kay?"  Zed said as his senior agent came into the office.  He had spent the last hour talking with people from he couldn't think of how many other planets, and now he was sure that what Junior and Edie had found was correct.  He still wasn't sure of how in the world he was going to tell Kay about the danger Aileen was in, though.

"Do you have something for us?"  Kay asked.  What was going on that Zed looked so worried?  "Is someone threatening to invade?"  But Zed hadn't looked that alarmed during the last two threatened invasions.

"Kay, I've got an assignment for you offworld.  Junior, Elle and X are getting packed right now, and the twins are holding a transport.  You're leaving as soon as you can throw some things together."

Kay nodded.  "Where to?"  And with Elle and X coming along, he hoped that the planet had insurance to cover the bickering partners.

"Arbus.  It seems that they have a problem with a serial killer there, picking off everyone connected with an old homicide case."

"Arbus?  What's Earth's connection?"  Kay asked, not that he had any problems with visiting Aileen's home planet.  He knew, even if she didn't actually come out and say it, that she had wanted him to visit for years.  The only reason he hadn't tried making the time was because of how freaked he knew Slick would be, thinking he was about to be dumped as a partner.  "Did Aileen call?"

"Kay, Aileen's the problem."  Zed said, hoping that he remembered his old duck and cover training from the tornado drills they had in elementary school years ago.  "I've got people looking into it to see if there's someone else that we're missing, but at the moment, it looks like Aileen's the only person connected to that trial that's still alive."

Kay paled, but that was the only visible reaction.  "How long?"  He said after a long pause.  "How long between the deaths?"  And why hadn't Aileen called him to let him know what was going on?  If she had called, Kay wouldn't have waited for Zed to assign them before he headed for Arbus.

"There isn't a set time.  That probably made it harder for someone to catch on to the pattern.  The last death was a bit over a week ago."  Zed said.  "But with Aileen as the last survivor, who knows if that might cause whoever's behind this to speed things up.  Kay..."

Kay didn't say anything, just nodded and turned, walking out of the door.

Zed started to sit down again, relief washing over him that he still had an office, when he heard the first sounds of shattering glass.  "What in the world?"  he said as he went over and opened his door, to find that the hallway littered with glass from every door there.

"I don't want to know how he did that."  Zed said to himself as he went to call maintance.  He just hoped that Kay would be able to hold things together on the shuttle for long enough to get to Arbus.  And he added up a silent prayer for Aileen's safety.  He didn't want to think of the shape his top agent would be in if something happened to her.

"Kay?"  Jay said as he spotted his partner stalking through the terminal towards the gate leading for their transport.  He noticed that Kay hadn't bothered to pack a bag, and he was suddenly glad that he had through to swing by his partner's to toss a few things in for him.  Somehow, he didn't think it would help Zed's blood pressure if they had to use an expense account off planet to replace clothes.

"Where are Elle and X?"  Kay demanded as soon as he reached Jay.  If they weren't there, he wasn't going to wait for them, not with Aileen in danger.  Edie was a good cop, true, but she was really little more than a kid.  As much as he trusted her, with Aileen's life in danger, he wanted to be the one to be there to watch her back.

"Already on board, and already in a fight.  Seems that the only rooms that Zed could grab on such short notice were two singles.  You're okay with that, right?  I guess I can take the floor or something."

"It doesn't matter.  You know what's...."

"About Aileen?  Yeah, Edie called me.  Poor girl's worried sick.  She was the first one to notice what was going on."  Jay said as he followed his partner onto the shuttle and then motioned him towards the room they had been assigned, not that the sounds of Elle and X arguing over custody of the bed in the room next door wouldn't have led him there anyway.  "I've got the materials that Edie sent me waiting.  I figure that you would want to look over them yourself.  Elle's already figured out how whoever is doing this caused one of the deaths."

"Kay?"  Jay said as they stepped inside the room, and his partner went right over to the records.  "I stopped by your room, snagged your good black suit and everything.  You wouldn't want to be meeting Aileen without that, now would you?  Listen, I know you're worried, but Edie will take care of Aileen.  She's probably sticking so close to her right now that Aileen thinks she somehow got a symbiote stuck on.  She might be a rookie, but Edie's not going to let anything happen to her partner.  Killer would have to go through her first to get to Aileen, and can you imagine someone getting through Edie?  It's going to be okay.  Bet we can figure out who's doing this in no time, and then maybe we can have a little break on Zed's dime.  I'm sure I can find something to occupy myself with, and I imagine Edie can too, if you want to hang out with Aileen.  Don't know what we're going to do with Elle and X, though."

After a moment, Kay finally nodded.  He knew Jay was just trying to distract him, but it did help a bit.  He knew how important her partner was to Edie, if she knew what was going on, Jay was right that whoever was after her would have to go through Edie to get to Aileen.  Still, though, he felt like he should be the one in that position.  "Go and get Elle and X, Slick.  Tell them if they don't get themselves over here to go over these files now, then both of them are going to be sleeping on the floor tonight."

Kay turned back to the files as he heard Jay going out the door, studying the details of the old case that tied everything together.  Somewhere in here, there had to be something that would lead him back to the killer, and when he found out who it was, Kay knew he woudl be hard pressed to hold himself back from killing the person himself, for threatening Aileen.


	4. Chapter 4

"Elle, you don't have any other ideas?"  Jay asked as he followed in the wake his partner was leaving as they crossed the shuttleport on Arbus.  They had gone over the case over and over, with Kay barely giving them time to rest, but nothing was jumping out as to who might be responsible for the deaths.  The accused didn't have family, and with the sentence that he got, Jay just couldn't see the families of the victims being unhappy enough to go after everyone connected to the case, so who was doing this?

"I wish I did."  Elle told him.  She had managed to find a couple of inconsistencies that she thought could be used to get some of the deaths reclassified, but as to who might be responsible, she didn't have a clue.  There just didn't seem to be a motive based on what was in the reports.

"What about a partner?"  X suggested again.  After a bit, the big alien had got into the entire thing, and the idea that the killer in the case that had lead to this hadn't been working alone was his pet theory.

"It might make as much sense as anything else."  Elle said.  "I'd like to get more of the records from that case to see if I could come up with anything else."

"Yeah."  And if Elle did find something, she was going to be the one to break the bad news to Aileen that she had made a mistake.  No way was Jay going to be anywhere in the area for that.  It would be like telling Kay that he had goofed up.  Kay.  "Hey, partner, wait up."  Jay called as he hurried to catch up to Kay.  "Any idea of how we're going to get wherever to hook up with Aileen and Edie?  Should we call them or something?"

"No need."  Kay said as he waved in the direction of a older alien of Aileen and Edie's species who was hurrying towards them with an official air about him.  "Looks like Zed decided to alert their boss to what was going on."

"Good thing, I guess."  Jay chuckled.  "I always hated the car rental lines at the airports back home."  And even on another planet, he would bet anything that the situation wasn't any better.  "Guess you're glad I brought your good black suit along, now, aren't you?  Wouldn't want to look bad in front of Aileen's boss."  Not that he had any hopes of Kay cracking a smile or something, but he had to try to ease the tension a little.  Kay had been so tightly wound the entire trip there, that Jay had expected him to blow at any moment.  He didn't know how, but he had to do something to get him calmed down before they met Aileen and Edie.  If Aileen saw him like this, he didn't want to think of how she would react, especially if she was still thinking that there was nothing serious going on.  They would get into a blow out fight for sure.

Kay sighed, but did ease up a little.  He knew what Jay was trying to do, and even though he wouldn't come out and say it, he appreciated his partner's attempts to help.  He didn't think he would be able to relax until he had seen Aileen, though, and knew that she was actually safe.  "Zed let you know what was going on?"  He said as soon as Aileen's boss reached them.

"He called late last night."  Chief Marston said.  "Frankly, it took me completely by surprise.  Are you sure that someone killed all of those people?  I know that Edie was going around with some theory about that, but frankly, I thought she had been reading more of those Earth mysteries than she should."

Kay didn't say anything, just gave him a look that clearly said would he have came all this way, at least lagging his partner, Elle and X along, if he just wanted some time with his girlfriend?

"Sorry.  Of course you wouldn't be here if you didn't think that something was wrong.  I just can't believe that we managed to miss something like this.  Do you have any ideas about who might be responsible?  I'm getting all of the files pulled now, but they're in storage, so it might take awhile.  We haven't seen so much as an appeal on the case in five years, so who knows how far back those things are."

"I can tell you how at least one of the deaths happened, and I have a couple of ideas on the others."  Elle said.  "I'd really like to talk to the coroner that handled the last two cases if I could."

"He's out of town, fishing.  I sent someone to get him, but who knows how long it will take to track him down."  Chief Marston said.  "And I hate to say it, but I'm not sure of how helpful he's going to be if we can find him.  he hates to have anyone prove him wrong."

"Well. he'll just have to get over that."  Kay told him.  Anyone who might be planning to get in the way of him keeping Aileen safe could just get over it.  "Do you have a vehicle?  I want to have a talk with Aileen."

"I've arranged to loan you something, unless you would rather have someone drive you over.  Aileen and Edie are out right now, working on a case."

"You sent them out into the field with something like this going on?"  Kay demanded, as Jay put a hand on his partner's shoulder to try to remind him that hitting her boss probably wouldn't make Aileen happy.

"It happened last night before Zed called me, and really, the case isn't anything.  We normally don't even handle things like this, but some little singer that my granddaughter's crazy about lost a necklace at one of the resorts just outside of town.  Her father called and pitched a fit, demanding that the best be sent to look into it.  And you know that's Aileen.  I thought about calling them back when I heard from Zed, but honestly, they're probably safer there than they would be here, if someone is after Aileen."

After a moment, Kay nodded.  "Directions?"

"I'll have them in the car.  And Agent Kay, whatever you need to keep Aileen safe, you have it.  I just can't believe that we missed something like this."

"See, this is going to be okay."  Jay told Kay as they followed Aileen's boss towards where he had left the loaner vehicle.  "A nice resort.  We'll figure out who's behind this, and then you and Aileen can have a nice vacation on both of your bosses' dimes.  This is going to be okay."

Kay slowly nodded, although he still had a painful ache inside.  If anything happened to Aileen...  'I'm coming.  I'm coming.'  He thought.  'Just stay safe until I can get there.'


End file.
